Summer School for Journalists and Media Practitioners

JOURNALISM IN THE DIGITAL AGE: RESPONDING TO PROPAGANDA AND FAKE NEWS

The Summer School is organised by the Centre for Media Pluralism and Media Freedom (CMPF) at the Robert Schuman Centre for Advanced Studies of the European University Institute (EUI).

The EUI is a renowned international institution, hosting a community of more than 1000 academics and policy-makers from over 60 countries. It is located on picturesque hills above Florence.

Building on its successful experience of previous years, this year’s Summer School will offer the opportunity to around 25 journalists and media practitioners to learn about the latest policy, market and professional trends in the area as well as to share their experiences, ideas and points of view. The Summer School programme is structured around keynote presentations by distinguished experts and follow-up interactive sessions.

Topics include:

Freedom of Expression, Pluralism and the Changing Media: Legal Perspectives

PARTICIPANTS:

The Summer School is open to early and mid-career journalists and other stakeholders in the news industry. We aim to have participants from a variety of countries and backgrounds but scholarships will be available only to the nationals or residents from EU Member States, accession and neighboring countries. The selection of participants will be made by the CMPF based on the information provided in the application form.

PRESENTERS:

Academics affiliated to CMPF and renowned experts and journalists. Names of speakers will be added to the webpage on a rolling basis over the coming weeks. You can find the last year’s programme here.

FEES AND SCHOLARSHIPS:

Fee:€1000. The fees include: 5 nights’ hotel accommodation, all tuition, all course materials, access to the EUI library, Wi-Fi access at the EUI, social activities, lunches and coffee breaks on lecture days.

We offer twenty (20) scholarships that cover the following: travel expenses (up to 400 EUR), accommodation for 5 nights, tuition fees, all course materials, access to the EUI library, Wi-Fi access at the EUI, social activities, lunches and coffee breaks on lecture days. The scholarships are available for outstanding candidates from EU Member States and neighboring countries by application only. Please note that unsuccessful applicants for these places will not be considered for a fee-paying place at the School. Scholarships are not intended for participants who can be funded by their own institutions.

OUTCOME:

Shared knowledge of common European journalistic professional rights and rules; up-to-date overview of the legal principles governing content online; strategies for the development of new business models in journalism; analysis of the state of play of pluralism and freedom in the digital media environment; interactive session proceedings; networking among participants and among participants and speakers.

A Certificate will be awarded to each participant who has successfully completed the training course.

HOW TO APPLY:

We will consider only applications received through the online application system, and it has to contain your CV (maximum 2 pages) and motivation letter (maximum 1 page). If you wish to be considered for a scholarship you also have to submit a two pages article on if/how social media shape elections in your country.

That the Islamic State would eventually turn its sights on Turkey seemed predictable to many. “If a democratically-elected dictator wants to act as a conduit in a neighbour’s civil war, what does he expect but massacres in his own major cities?”, Robert Fisk recently asked in the Independent. The Justice and Development Party (AKP) government has not only been lenient towards ISIS activities inside Turkey, but it also allegedly sent weapons to jihadi groups in Syria, not excluding the Islamic State. The country has also chosen to bomb Kurds, who are fighting ISIS in Syria.

Yet, the government and its propaganda-machine seem to be confused about what to make of the threat. Government loyalists on Twitter, who are allegedly paid out of state funds—they’ve been nicknamed AK Trolls – very nearly applauded the massacre, which had followed a week of sermons and other exhortations condemning celebrations of the New Year by the country’s powerful Directorate General for Religious Affairs and government representatives. Polarization has always paid off well for the country’s strongman leader Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, and violence is no reason to give up such a valuable treasure for a man who recently survived a coup attempt.

Although the Turkish government now seems to be changing course in its initially anti-Assad and Sunni-oriented foreign policy, its timidity in speaking against ISIS still remains in place. In fact, government members as well as AKP deputies have, on many occasions, expressed sympathy with ISIS in the past. Earlier, Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu, the main ideologue behind the AKP government’s initial Syrian policy — who’s since been sacked by the country’s President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan — in 2014 said of ISIS, “This structure that we call ISIS might be viewed as a radical, terror structure. But there are Turks, Arabs and Kurds among those who join [IS]. The structure [in Iraq], previous grievances and anger have produced a widespread reaction across a large range.” AKP deputy Orhan Miroğlu once stated in televised remarks that “ISIS is not a terrorist organization.”

Let them go

The Turkish Ministry of Interior Affairs recently announced that 1313 people were arrested in 2016 over suspected ISIS links. This number also includes individuals who are no longer in prison; and therefore highly misleading. According to academic Efe Kerem Sözeri, who examined the figures cited in responses given by the Justice Ministry to parliamentary queries on ISIS, there were only 121 ISIS suspects under arrest pending trial and two others who were convicted on terror charges in August 2015. One year later, as of July 2016, there were 513 ISIS suspects in prison while the number of ISIS suspects serving a sentence was seven. According to Sözeri, half of those currently in prison are foreign nationals, and most of the seven suspects have been convicted on theft charges.

In other words, ISIS seems to be tolerated for now as it has so far attacked mostly Kurds, Alevis and in New Year’s, secular segments. However, the AKP, hoping to mobilize its own voter base, which has a segment sympathetic to ISIS’ ideology, will unlikely be free from ISIS violence forever. For one, there is history. Sezin Öney, a columnist, in a piece about the recent history of Bangladesh warned: “[Religious fundamentalist] attacks in Bangladesh first started only by targeting segments considered “marginal,” and today, anyone who’s not a member or supporter of these organizations, including those in power, have become a target.

Theologian and writer İhsan Eliaçık in a recent interview said of the Reina attack: “The provocations [against celebrating the new year]prior to the [attack], and that an entertainment venue was chosen on new year’s eve, serve to give the message that ‘Turkey is no longer the old Turkey; the religious segment will bring all others to their knees.’ Now the massacre is being investigated in terms of ISIS links, but questions also need to be asked about those who spread the propaganda that ‘celebrating the new year is blasphemy’.”

These and similar statements from the secular segments of Turkey aren’t only fact-based analyses proven by political history, but they are also a desperate attempt at self-protection. The government’s attitude indicates that it doesn’t care about its secular, Kurdish or Alevi citizens dying. At least, that is the general feeling among the opposition in Turkey — which is half the country. Beyond the grimness of living in such turbulent times for millions of people; there is the certainty that the AKP will eventually come to regret its policies.